According to WHO, there are more than 55 million people with dementia worldwide. Almost 10 million new cases occur every year. Dementia ranks seventh among the leading causes of death and is one of the main causes of disability in older people and their dependence on outside help.
Although older people are at risk, dementia also occurs at a young age. According to statistics, approximately 370 thousand such cases are registered annually in the world. There is little research on this topic.
Recently, scientists from Exeter (UK) and Maastricht (Netherlands) universities identified the main factors in the early development of dementia. They looked at data from 356,052 people, using information from the UK Biobank. Of these, 55.3% are women, the average age is 54.6 years. None of the participants had established dementia at the start of the study. results published In the magazine JAMA Neurology.
Scientists assessed a wide range of risk factors, from genetic predisposition to environmental influences. As it turned out, the development of the disease was most influenced by low levels of education, socioeconomic status, and genetic factors. In addition, lifestyle factors (alcohol abuse and social isolation) and health problems including vitamin D deficiency, depression, stroke, hearing loss and heart disease were among the top causes.
“Surprisingly, for the first time, we have shown that affordable interventions can be taken to reduce the risk of developing dementia, a debilitating condition, by targeting a number of factors,” the study authors noted.
They say the results could mark a new era in preventing early-onset dementia. Scientists have proposed incorporating these modifiable risk factors into disease prevention initiatives and opening up new therapeutic options.
It has been suggested before that the likelihood of senile dementia is somehow related to lifestyle. In particular, for rich and civilized countries, the incidence of Alzheimer’s disease in people over 60 is 8-11%, while among hunter-gatherers people of the same age suffer this disease in 0.6-1.2% of cases. It is clear that the difference of 10-20 times is unlikely to be explained by genes alone. Such studies provide hope that it is possible to dramatically reduce the incidence of age-related dementia outside hunter-gatherer tribes.
2023-12-27 01:24:06
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